If a caller, also referred to herein as a calling party, when placing a call to a called party, also referred to herein as a recipient, is not connected to the recipient, the caller is typically transferred to a voicemail service in order to leave a voicemail message for the recipient. Voicemail systems of the current art are essentially passive messaging services. When a caller leaves a voicemail, the voicemail is stored in a database for later retrieval by another party, usually the intended recipient of the call. Thereafter, it is up to the recipient, the caller, or both, to attempt to connect at a later time. This may lead to some frustration if the caller does not receive a response from the recipient for a period of time. The caller may not even know whether the recipient received the voice message or, unless specified on the voice mail greeting, whether the recipient is even available to retrieve voice mail messages. This may also lead to frustration for the recipient, as conditions that affect the recipient's ability to call the caller back may change over the course of a day or week, or perhaps the recipient may have only a limited period in which to call back but the caller has moved on to other things.
Additionally, there is no way to discern between callers. Telemarketers and pollsters typically are not distinguishable from family, friends and co-workers in a voice-mail service. Thus, someone who receives calls from many different sources has to initially treat all the voice-mail messages equally until such time as the recipient processes through the messages.